Chapter 57
CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN
Knox
“I don’t understand what happened. This can’t be possible. It just can’t be,” Briar muttered.
She knelt before a drooping rose that was almost entirely black. Yesterday, it was a much healthier shade of red. When she touched it, a single petal fell off, and she recoiled as if it burned her.
“Oh no. Oh no, oh no, oh no,” she whispered.
A tear streaked her face as she moved the petal back toward the rose like she could somehow reattach it. She hesitated only centimeters away from the flower. She couldn’t stick the petal on again, and if she touched it, more would probably fall off.
“What happened?” I growled.
Lyra, Pierce, Dromon, and the sprites had all joined us in the courtyard. This rose was near the blacksmith’s shop, but others were wilting and blackening as well.
“What the fuck happened?” I barked when Briar didn’t answer me.
She jumped a little and pulled the petal away from the rose, clutching it against her chest. “I don’t know. This shouldn’t be possible. The potion wouldn’t do this.”
“Has anyone put anything else on these roses?” I demanded as I looked at all those gathered round.
The sprites and shifters shook their heads. On Briar’s shoulder, the rodent eyed me like it was waiting for me to attack her, but she wouldn’t do this, would she?
She was the only one giving them anything other than the natural healing ability of the sprites. It was her potions feeding these plants, but she wouldn’t kill them. Her grief looked genuine as her tears dripped onto the ground.
“Could this… could this be from the potion I created?” Zephyr asked, his eyes on Briar.
“No—”
Before she could say anything more, I grabbed her arm and lifted her.
She staggered a little as I set her on her feet and recoiled a little.
When I thrust my face into hers, the rodent’s tail went up; it hissed as it coiled to spring, but didn’t attack.
Which was the smart choice, because I wouldn’t hesitate to snap its neck.
“You let someone else make a potion for them?” I snarled.
The beast rolled within me, both seeking to protect her and raging against this revelation.
“I…” Briar opened and closed her mouth a few times before gulping. “I showed him how to make it, but I watched him every step of the way. His potion was perfect! It wouldn’t have done this.” She looked past me to Zephyr. “You didn’t do this.”
“Why did you let someone else make the potion?” I demanded.
Briar’s eyes flew back to mine. “Because I shouldn’t be the only one who can!”
She jerked on her arm as some of the fire returned to her eyes. I was too incensed to release her. “And why not?”
“If something ever happens to me—”
“Do you think I can’t protect you?”
“I didn’t say that!”
“Or are you planning to try and escape?”
And that was the reason the beast was so frantic within me. Even if she’d done something to these roses, the idea of her leaving had sent me into a spiral I couldn’t stop.
“Of course not!” she blurted, but the smallest flicker in her eyes told me she lied.
“Do you really think you can run from me?” I demanded. “Do you really think you can escape me?”
She jerked on her arm again, but when I refused to relinquish it, she stopped to scowl at me.
“If you try to run, I will hunt you wherever you go. I’ll be your worst fucking nightmare, so you better get any idea of leaving this place out of your head right now.”
Her lips clamped together as her nostrils flared. When her hands fisted, I knew she was contemplating punching me, but she wasn’t stupid enough for that.
“What did you do to the roses?” I inquired.
I didn’t want to believe she’d done something to them, but if she was plotting to run, then who knew what else she was doing behind my back.
“I didn’t do anything to them!” she shouted. “The potion wouldn’t do this. There’s something else going on here.”
“What about Zephyr’s potion? Could he have messed something up?”
“Like I said, his potion was perfect,” she said through her teeth.
“I was there every step of the way; he didn’t make a single mistake.
Even if he did, there’s nothing in the potion that would cause this.
It might make them wither a little if they received too much of it, but it wouldn’t make them die! ”
“Is it dead?” I demanded.
It sure looked dead, but I didn’t want to believe that. My mind flashed to the throne room and the two roses sitting on the thrones there. If my parents were dead…
I shut the possibility down as red filled my vision. If I found out she was lying and she really did do something to them, I couldn’t kill my mate, but I’d make her beg for death.
“Is it dead?” I barked when she didn’t answer me.
Briar squeezed her eyes closed before opening them and focusing on the rose again. “It could still be alive, but if it is, it’s very weak.”
“Did you do this?”
Her eyes shot up to me. “Why are you always so determined to believe the worst of me? Why can’t you trust and believe me? I didn’t do this. Zephyr didn’t do this. Something else is going on here!”
“And what is that?”
“I don’t know!” She tried to throw up both her hands, but my grip on her elbow stopped her. “If I knew, don’t you think I’d tell you?”
She jerked at her arm again, and this time, when I refused to release it, she huffed out an angry breath and swung at me. I was so astounded that Briar, a woman whom I’d never seen unleash violence before, threw a punch at me that I didn’t catch it until it was only inches from my head.
Her fist thudded against my palm as I encased it in my hand. As I leaned toward her, she kicked.
“Fuck you!” she shouted as her boot connected squarely with my shin.
I didn’t so much as flinch. “Do you think that hurt me, mea perfidas eveto?”
“I don’t care if it hurt or not!” she spat.
Her eyes told a different story as they burned with rage.
“I’m not sure what you’d tell me and what you wouldn’t,” I told her. “These roses were fine until you started pouring your potion on them.”
“They were thriving yesterday! If my potion did this, they would have died weeks ago.”
“Maybe that was part of your plan. Maybe you were determined to reel us into letting you work with all the roses before you poisoned them.”
Her ire died as anguish bloomed in her eyes and her face fell. The look on her face made me feel like the biggest piece of shit, but I shook it off. I couldn’t see Briar doing this to the flowers, but what did I know anymore?
The fight left her as she went limp in my hold. “You’re right, this was all part of my master plan. I can’t fool you, Knox. I never could. You’re just too smart and powerful for me.”
My eyes narrowed at her sarcasm. “So you admit it then.”
“Yep. It was all me. Lock me up, kill me, do whatever, but I’m done with you.”
A sneer curved my lip as I pushed her toward Dromon and Pierce. “Take her to her room. I can’t look at her anymore. And make sure she doesn’t have any access to anything that can make a potion.”
Briar didn’t say a word as she strode away with her chin held high. I couldn’t read the look Dromon gave me, but it certainly wasn’t happy.
I turned my back on them to focus on the dying rose. “Bertie!” I shouted.
The queen of the sprites flew over to hover at my side. Her orange butterfly wings created a small thump in the air.
“She didn’t do this, Knox,” Bertie said.
“You can’t know that.”
Bertie didn’t speak for a while before she whispered, “But you can.”
Every instinct I had told me Bertie was right, but I was too pissed about Briar teaching Zephyr the potion to care about my instincts. She’s planning to run.
I was absolutely convinced of that, even more so than I was that she didn’t do this.
“What happened to the roses?” I demanded.
“I don’t know, but Briar didn’t poison them.”
“So you’ve said, but if you’re going to prove it, then you’d better figure out what happened to them.”
“We could use her help. She knows these plants. She has a true, special affinity to them, and they respond to her.”
I lifted my head to glare at her. “If you’re so determined to see her name cleared, then I’d get to work on doing so.”
Bertie folded her arms over her chest and scowled at me. “You know you’re wrong on this.”
I didn’t say anything as I knelt to examine the rose more carefully. I wasn’t beyond admitting most of my wrath came from realizing she planned to run. She’d never get away from me, but she could get herself killed in the process.
Why would she want to stay with you? You’ve done nothing but terrorize her.
I lowered my hand and sat back as another petal fell. It floated back and forth as it rode the air currents while falling silently to the ground.
If they died, would the shifters die too?
It seemed impossible for the shifters to survive if the roses didn’t. “How do we stop this?”
“I don’t know,” Bertie admitted. “We’ll try everything we can to save them.”
“I have to check on my parents. Do the best you can.”
Rising, I strode away from her and on toward the throne room. If they were dying too, I didn’t know what I’d do.